にほんご ▶

Nov. 22, 2020

This is a continuation of the previous “Start With Melody“. I already have a melody, harmony and bass, so this is also more of an arrangement than a composition.

In “Start with melody“, I wrote about adding harmony and bass to the melody of the first 4 measures of Oh! Italia.

I tried to make melody + harmony + bass in the same way for the following 4 measures. Please continue to listen.

There are no notes where I put the squares. Continuous half notes and dotted quarter notes makes the song slow-moving rhythm. Also, the same feeling as the first 4 measures continues, so it becomes boring. Therefor I put notes there to give them a lively rhythm.

These notes gave this song a bit of a boat-shaking feel. However, if I put too many notes for the rhythm, it would be too persistent, so I put them only in the two places marked in red.

In my first work, Oh! Italia, all I did was what I wrote in “Start With Melody” and what I wrote here. There are only the following 6 points in total.

1. Play the melody with a single note
2. Add harmony 3 degrees below
3. Play the base that gives you the mood you want to express
4. Change the harmony that doesn’t sound
5. Add one more note where you want to enrich
6. Write the rhythm in to make the song lively

⇒Oh! Italia : Stuff Notation ↗️

I didn’t know how to compose at all, but I think the reason I could compose the song was I followed the characteristics of the guitar.

• Melody with middle finger, Harmony with index finger, Bass with thumb
• Melody on the 1st and 2nd strings, Harmony on the 2nd and 3rd strings, Bass on the 5th and 6th strings, and Rhythm on the 3rd and 4th strings.

This is a typical pattern of guitar playing that I felt by playing a number of songs on my guitar. I just applied it to composing. Also, the strings of guitar are made so that the 3 degree harmonies are easy to play, and the bass can be played with open strings, so it can be said that the method I wrote is how to make a song that is easy to play on guitar. Thus, I could make a song guided by guitar.

Well, in the end, I learned that if I could just get a melody, I could make it a song by “playing and listening to it,” “finding a sound I like,” and “following the characteristics of guitar”. But then how can I “get the melody”? There doesn’t seem to be a direct way, but I’m going to write what I actually did, in the next article.

← Start With Melody / Sing The Melody →

▲ More About Composing

Photo by Maruoka Joe on PhotoAC